Racial

City’s police force faces investigation of 16 officers accused of disproportionately targeting Black and Arab residentsMontreal’s mayor has called for a halt to random police checks as the city’s police force grapples with an internal investigation into racism and racial profiling by 16 officers.Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada told reporters last week that her husband, who is Black, has been repeatedly stopped by police while driving. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs say children’s services uses ‘emergency removal’ disproportionately against Black and Latino familiesSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailOn Thursday, two families filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of New York, alleging that the administration for children’s services (ACS) abuses its emergency removal power to take children from their parents without a court order. The families say that Black people and Latinos are disproportionately affected by the practice.The “emergency removal” power is supposed to be used only in extreme and urgent situations in which there is not enough time to obtain a court order. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, the ACS is using a racially discriminatory emergency removal policy that allows the agency to bypass judicial review. The policy, which separates parents from their children, can cause lasting harm to the families that are affected. Continue reading...

Terry Pitchford, on death row for a murder conviction, argued that Black jurors were excluded from his trialSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailThe US supreme court on Thursday ruled in favor of Terry Pitchford, a Black man convicted of capital murder and on death row in Mississippi, who claimed that his conviction was due to the jury having racial bias.The justices sided with Pitchford in a 5-4 vote. Continue reading...

Steve Roth was responding to the announcement by New York’s mayor of tax on second homes worth more than $5mSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The phrase “tax the rich” can be “just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”, according to New York City billionaire Steve Roth, who said that the top 1% should be “praised and thanked”.Speaking on his company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the CEO of Citadel, Ken Griffin, who was singled out in New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 15 April announcement of the state’s first “pied-à-terre” tax on second homes valued at more than $5m. In a video, Mamdani announced the policy in front of Griffin’s penthouse, which he said was purchased for $238m. Continue reading...

• A Pennsylvania state court ordered election officials to draw a new congressional map by June 2026, ruling that the current Republican‑backed map unlawfully diluted the voting strength of Black and Latino communities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. • The judge found that the existing districts concentrated minority voters into a handful of “safe” Democratic seats, limiting their influence in neighboring competitive districts and violating state constitutional protections for equal representation. • The decision threatens Republican hopes of holding a narrow House majority in 2026 and could force the legislature into a court‑supervised redistricting process if lawmakers cannot agree on a replacement map.

• The Supreme Court decided on April 29, 2026, whether Louisiana's new congressional map constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, marking a significant ruling on voting rights and district boundaries. • The case, Louisiana v. Callais, examined Louisiana's 2022 redrawn congressional districts that were previously challenged in federal court under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. • This decision affects ongoing redistricting battles across the country as states prepare for the 2026 midterm elections, with implications for both Democratic and Republican seat counts.

Executive complaints unit finding relates to broadcast of N-word during awards ceremonyThe BBC breached its editorial standards by broadcasting a racial slur during the Bafta film awards ceremony in February, the corporation’s executive complaints unit has found.More details soon … Continue reading...